Sunday, September 6, 2009

Gainsay the AA

Here’s the AA promoting the Waterview motorway linkthat will rip through the Auckland suburbs of Mt Albert andAvondale, requiring the demolition of hundreds of housesand the concreting-over of at least five hectares of parkland.Well, they would say that, wouldn’t they. The AutomobileAssociation exists to promote driving and the use of privatevehicles, and naturally it will lobby for anything that aidsand abets those activities. Since its formation in 1903 it hasgrown to be a powerful, well-funded organization regarded—as its website correctly claims—as the ‘leading advocatefor New Zealand motorists and their interests.’ Fair enough.What I want to know is: where is the leading advocate forNew Zealand public-transport users and their interests?Where is the powerful, well-funded organization that existsto promote the use of buses and trains? There is none.There are many small groups throughout the countrydedicated to improving public transport but no overarchingnationwide lobby group. If we had one that spoke out asfrequently and as forcefully as the AA does, with the kind ofresearch resources the AA has, the debates over such issuesas roading, peak oil and public health and safety would begreatly enriched and far less one-sided, especially at a timewhen the government of the day believes that the transportbudget is best spent on more and bigger roads. We need thepublic-transport groups to coalesce and fight as one.

Look at the Waterview debate, for instance—such as it is.The campaign against the overground motorway is being ledby a local group called Tunnel or Nothing. Good on them,but it's like trying to fight bushfires. You might damp downone but another flares up. And these are volunteers doingwhat they can in their own time and at their own expense.The case for public transport in this country needs to bemade in a nationally coordinated, professionally resourcedway, because the National-led government, supported bybodies like the AA, is scorching the earth everywhere withits motorway firestorm.

Footnote: in the link above, the New Zealand Herald reports:

Auckland University senior economics lecturer and formerTreasury employee Rhema Vaithianathan, a Mt Albertresident, has meanwhile calculated that keeping the $1.4billion earmarked for the [Waterview] project in the bankfor 10 years would earn enough interest to halve bus-faresthroughout the region.